“…those close to Camille…witnessed her fiery temperament, her tendency to dominate, her caustic wit and, later, the terrifying violence of her strange, eccentric and provocative character, as well as her legendary, savage gift for mockery…” –Musée Rodin Gifted, tempestuous, and headstrong, sculptor Camille Claudel shared a life and her art with Auguste Rodin for 10…
When retired Thoroughbreds take to the show ring this weekend at the Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas, Third Regiment and his trainer Pat Dale will be there to do the Mid-Atlantic proud. A 2007 Louis Quatorze gelding out of the Smart Strike mare Acts Well, Third Regiment was bred in Pennsylvania by Kim…
Anyone connected electronically with Lisa Molloy began seeing her queries pop up on social media earlier this month. On Twitter and on Facebook, on personal and organizational pages, she began her own investigation, trying to get to the bottom of what she suspected was a scam. Late in 2012, a Booster.com t-shirt was set up,…
A quick glance at the cast page for Horseplayers reveals that the lead characters don’t offer much in the way of diversity: six characters, six men, all white. The target audience for the Esquire Network, on which the shows airs, is males in their late 20s to their early 40s, according to Tina Gazzero Clapp, president of GoGoLuckey, which…
Frigid in New York. Balmy in Florida. Warm, cold, rain, shine, north, south, Aqueduct, Gulfstream. On the first weekend of 2014, racing interests with Mid-Atlantic connections were kind of like the U.S. Postal Service: nothing kept them from their appointed rounds, and several kicked off the new year with a trip to the winner’s…
The holiday season can bring out the best in us, and racetracks are no exception. Though philanthropic initiatives proliferate throughout the year, at Thanksgiving and Christmas, racing people, both front side and back, make extra efforts to help those less fortunate. The holiday work of the Central Pennsylvania Racetrack Chaplaincy of America (RTCA) Council and…
On December 11, the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance announced its first significant round of accreditations, giving its stamp of approval to 20 organizations across the country. Among them were four Mid-Atlantic facilities: Angel Acres Horse Haven in Pennsylvania, Virginia’s ReRun, and MidAtlantic Horse Rescue and Thoroughbred Placement Resources, both in Maryland. Though applicants characterized the process…
Earlier this year, on a cold January morning on the backstretch at Laurel, exercise rider Chelsey Keiser asked agent Kevin Witte the best time to try to start a career as a jockey. She’d been told, she said, to start in January, to leave herself as much time as possible to get wins, in the…
At Pimlico last month, more than 600 people attended a two-day exhibition produced by the Retired Racehorse Training Project. Dozens of retired Thoroughbreds performed in a variety of disciplines, showing off newly learned skills in hunting, jumping, polo, and even police work. The weekend provided an opportunity for retired Thoroughbreds to demonstrate their adaptability and usefulness…
A couple of dozen Thoroughbreds took to the track at Pimlico last weekend, but not to run in a race. There was no starting gate, no betting, and no jockeys, but more than 600 people bought tickets to see what the horses could do beyond competing in a horse race. The Retired Racehorse Training Project took over…
Brooklyn Backstretch 